I’m surprised I haven’t heard anything about any of the Fox News talking heads complaining bitterly about the case of Chelsea Garland v. Dunkin Donuts. It seems like the kind of thing they could easily distort into an example of wokeness gone wild.
The class action lawsuit, which was filed the day after Christmas in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and has yet to go to trial, hinges on the plaintiffs' claims that because they have milk allergies and/or are lactose intolerant, Dunkin Donuts is violating their rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act by charging extra for non-dairy creamers.
This is a golden opportunity for rightwing pundits to do what they do best by presenting this case in a superficial way, thus triggering their loyal followers to indignantly respond with “What’s next? Being lactose intolerant constitutes a disability now? This isn’t what the ADA is intended to address!”
But this is exactly what the ADA is intended to address, which is why it’s such a great and timeless law. The ADA is designed to expand the collective perception of who is disabled. It defines disability as a “physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.” This includes people with disabilities that aren’t obvious, such as those with mental health issues.
I have no problem including people who have milk allergies and/or are lactose intolerant among those with hidden disabilities. I imagine that when these conditions are acting up, it “substantially limits one or more major life activities.”
And it’s very unfair for them to be charged a financial penalty for being disabled. It’s just as bad as an airline trying to charge someone like me a higher fare because I need to bring my wheelchair on board the plane. It’s just as bad as if wheelchair users had to pay more than others to ride mainline public transportation because of the cost of making buses accessible.
Charging what I’ve heard a lot of disabled folks refer to as a “disability tax” is one of the subtle ways through which short-sighted policies and business practices have kept us from fully taking part in the world around us, by making it more expensive for us to do so. Exposing and obliteration barriers like that is what the ADA is all about.
Sometimes accommodating disabled people increases the cost of doing business and cuts into profits a bit. Too bad. That’s the price of inclusion.